Bermuda Grass . . . (Cynodon dactylon) Bermuda Grass is native to North America,
and a perennial which is very similar to the alien and annual bane of suburban lawns
everywhere, Crabgrass. (See the enlarged photo below to view the two scales
under each seed and the slightly zig-zag flowering stem which distinguish the species.)
Also know as Wire Grass or Scutch Grass.

Here's the companion poem of Sandbur,
from the first part of the Fireweed Poem Cycle:

Crabgrass  | listen in RealAudio |

4 or 5 digits -- the splayed fingers
of an outstretched hand,

driven to the peripherique of tightly
cropped, well-fed urban meadows . . .

How the violets, moss and yellow flowers
of spring wish to return, showing us

that someone has given up all the fighting,
letting their hair go wild again, gestures

shaped, even if ever so slightly,
by much sun, sparse rain, and the curious,
fickle ways of a prairie wind.

(Photograph was made Wednesday, the 2nd of October, 2002)


And here's a close-up:

Bermusda Grass, closeup . .